Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

8 reviews

biobeetle's review

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adventurous mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25


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softanimal's review

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dark tense fast-paced

4.0


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erebus53's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I am developing a soft-spot for this author. I am tickled in both my sciencey and my witchy wants and that's all good by me. This is a book that I was recommended though book club, and I was glad to find a copy to listen to.

30 minutes into the audio (12%) I realised that I had assumed the gender of the protagonist because of what the Audiobook narrator sounded like. This story has an interesting take on gender and I like the diversity of it. I do wish that the narrator of the book could manage to use unfamiliar pronouns as though they were.. pronouns? rather than emphasising them due to lack of familiarity and treating them like they are nouns. It got annoying that the flow was interrupted in a way that it wouldn't have been if I was just reading it myself.

I have not read the original Poe, Rise and Fall of the House of Usher, but it is source material for this re-imagining. The author's note on the end of the book gives a little more insight and it's really cool. I vibe deeply with the author's love of passionate people with fringe interests, and this same tendency is  mirrored in the protagonist of the story.

There is a satisfying cast of supporting characters in this story. Each has their own flavour and inner motivations. There is an English mycologist who is confounded by her peers' reluctance to acknowledge her work (due to her lack of a Y chromosome). Although she is fictitious, the character is portrayed as Beatrix Potter's aunt, which ties really nicely in with the narrative device of strangely behaving animals.

Dunno if I am the target audience, or just too overly interested in natural science, because the plot was fairly transparent, to me. I don't know how easy it would be for non-nerdy people to understand and predict like I did. I like that the story is relatively short because it didn't have a lot to it more than vibe (which is apparently the case with the original). Short stories are nice when they don't overstay their welcome.

A little creepy, a lot interesting, and with some cute ideas developed. I will read more books by this author.

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blacksphinx's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5


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affabletoaster's review

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dark funny informative mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Well, this was a delightful and quick read! It expands on Poe’s work in the most satisfying ways, and with the wry humour and practicality that I love and look for in T. Kingfisher’s work. Easton is just the right kind of first-person narrator for this story — out of the way enough that you are immersed, but with enough of a personality that you get to sort of try it on. And in the author’s note she recommends two more books that I have now added to my TBR list (which I am clearly making no progress at shortening!) 

Took me about 2.5 hrs to read, which is shameful when you realize that I checked it out of the library twice because of my poor sitting-down-and-reading habits. Many thanks to my in-laws who watched my children while I devoured this at last!

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schausjk's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was a very fun take on the classic (which I hadn't read before this, but have since read). The places where it deviated most strongly make sense to have adapted.  Kingfisher has a knack for the creepy that I find most effective when it's given room for ambiguity. I wish we had been given a little more breathing room to allow that dread to really fester, but it's already a novella length take on what was originally a short story, so I can understand wanting to keep it rather succinct.

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nixieba25f's review

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dark sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0


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bibliophage_teamage's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Kingfisher sparks the Gothic genre anew here. It glows like an algae on the page, illuminating the imagination with spindly webs. I devoured this book, and my only criticism is that there isn’t more. Easton in this novella is a fully fleshed out character, and the edit to make kan (a soldier pronoun) Gender Queer. It was a wonderful surprise and brilliantly executed. 

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